Luciana Mendonça

     Luciana Mendonça (pronounced Mendonza) was born and raised in Brazil, but now she resides in Redwood City, California working as a aerobics instructor and personal trainer .

   Only 5 feet and 100 lbs., Luciana is one of the shortest fitness women around, but she has one of the best balanced bodies in her field and a good muscular size and definition for a fitness girl with sultry cover girl looks.

She started her career in Brazil as a bodybuilder, following the steps of her father, who had won the Mr. Sao Paulo contest in his youth.

Bodyboarder or Bodybuilder?, the "Body" is what counts 
   Luciana traveled around the world for a time  as a professional body boarder, surfing waves up to fifteen feet! not many people that we know has those guts. If bodyboarding and his brother sport surfing are very popular in Brazil even more so are aerobics competitions. In fact, Brazil ha produced more world champions than any other country (and we are not talking about soccer footbal), this is perhaps because of the miniature G-string swimsuits, called "tangas" that are de rigeur on the beaches of Rio. Luciana soon found she had an exceptional talent as she became National Aerobics Champion and placed 4th in the World Championships.

     It was after moving to the United States that she became aware of fitness competitions. Having excelled in both aerobics and bodybuilding, it seemed like the perfect progression. Indeed it was, as Luciana’s ultra-lean physique took her to second place in the swimsuit round at the 1996 Fitness America Pageant - ESPN National Championships, while her supercharged routine, replete with aerobic strength demonstrations, earned her second in the routine round as well. Going into the interview round, she actually led eventual champion Kelly Ryan by two points. For a first-time fitness competitor to do so well at Nationals was more than outstanding.